Neatsfoot Oil - Before Or After Resolene (Or Other Finish)

[Suicide]

Hi guys,

What is the best practice there if I'm working with veg tan leather (usually tooled/stamped)?

Who should go first? NF? Finish? No matters?

So far I usually apply all the makeup first (dyes, stains, antiques and finally finishes) right after tooling, then come to conditioning (NF/EVO/SSoap etc). It usually goes well, but often leather still stiff after couple of oil layers + soap on top of it, especially thick one 8-10 oz. So I'm not sure If I use oils right.

Any advices and sharing expirience are very apreciated!

Cheers!

Edited January 25, 2016 by Suicide

[TinkerTailor]

Acrylic and lacquer finishes are basically complete sealants for the leather and will prevent any oils and things from penetrating. That is one of their advantages, they are stain resistant and water resistant if used right, however the tradeoff is they are also less penetrable when it comes to leather conditioners.

Conditioning before the acrylic is the way to go. Leave the leather for a couple days to allow the oils to penetrate well and dissipate so they don't effect the resolene and then go to town. Wax finishes are not nearly as resistant to leather conditioners. Quite a few of the wax finishes also have oil and conditioners as ingredients.

Edited January 25, 2016 by TinkerTailor

[club49]

Acrylic and lacquer finishes are basically complete sealants for the leather and will prevent any oils and things from penetrating. That is one of their advantages, they are stain resistant and water resistant if used right, however the tradeoff is they are also less penetrable when it comes to leather conditioners.

Conditioning before the acrylic is the way to go. Leave the leather for a couple days to allow the oils to penetrate well and dissipate so they don't effect the resolene and then go to town. Wax finishes are not nearly as resistant to leather conditioners. Quite a few of the wax finishes also have oil and conditioners as ingredients.

Thank you for that answer, it makes sense. Does that also apply to weather proofing ?

[TinkerTailor]

Oh, you can't condition with wax based conditioners before resolene.

Weatherproofing is a wide category and could include various sealants like waxes, oils, laquers, silicone, etc. All of these have differing effects depending on product and should be tested on scrap first.

All product combos should be tested on scrap first actually.